Light House
by g.mccrae22004
Summary: After years of surviving in the depths if aperture Doug Rattmann must crawl his way up to the surface and look for help. No food, no water, and no sanity; what will it take to survive.
1. Chapter 1

The facility was decomposing around him and all he could do was watch as the floor slowly crumbled beneath him. The underbelly of the facility swallowing him like a starving beast, as he plunged into the pit that seemed to go on for miles. He screamed into the abyss only for it to scream back with echoes of his own fear filled voice. The voices in his head getting louder and louder the further he fell.

Doug with his heart pounding and brow covered in sweat shot upright and studied his surroundings with one shaky leg in front of the other he walked over to his hollow companion on the ground. He thought how convenient it was to have a friend that's also a backpack but his thoughts were rudely interrupted by a pain in his gut; oh yes how he'd almost forgotten.

* * *

"Are you going to eat that?" the cube questioned you could almost hear the worry in his voice as Doug poked and prodded the handful of bright blue gel in his hand.

"At this point, I'll eat anything" he sighed, though Doug is 50% this slimy sludge will almost certainly kill him if he ingests it the other half of him points out that repulsion gel was sold as a weight loss yogurt in the '50s.

Doug's hunger eventually won over, quickly dipping his hand into the puddle of gel and out again to retrieve a handful of gel. Then just like a child would take cough medicine he pinched his nose and threw his head back and shivered as the gel crawled down his throat. The taste left on his tongue was cool and reminded him of licorice. Then however he felt a chill start in his stomach and end in his head as every fluid poured out of every orifice imaginable. Bile sprayed the white paneled walls as Doug violently gagged and sobbed for 2 hours. The room which used to be a clean white futuristic looking room was now a disgusting mural of blue and gray of bile and several other bodily fluids. After the whole event was over Doug spoke barely above a whisper to his four-sided companion,

"I don't know what's going to kill me faster the food or starvation." He chuckled at his joke while gasping and coughing through laughs. He had certainly learned that the gels were off limits in the eating department. But as he was traveling back to his den for the night his mind started to drift into darker ideas.

* * *

The memory made Doug gag, he had to push the darker cannibalistic ideas for now. He had a plan of action he was going to head to the relaxation center if anywhere had food the relaxation center was it. Packing the last of his things which were mostly the last of his water and some aperture tech, then he was off.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a cold Sunday morning when Chell awoke to the smell of maple. The last thing she wanted to do was get out from under the warm covers. When slowly descending the stairs she was greeted with a scene straight out of a rom-com, Wheatley was in the kitchen almost every inch of his body covered in flour, as he struggled to unstick the brown monstrosity that was supposed to be a pancake from the pan. Wheatley's face lit up as Chell entered the kitchen.

"morning love" he chirped, pouring more batter into the pan.

Chell was surprised that he was up this early, he usually needed the entire pot of coffee before heading off to the station in the morning. It had been six years since Wheatley was shot out of the atmosphere and back into her life. Since then he'd started a broadcast studio with Garret, and had been hosting the radio broadcasts since. The studio itself was one of the newer buildings added to Eaden. It was more of a shed that an office but to Wheatley, it was almost a second home. Before she could dive deeper into thought she was interrupted by the plate being pushed in front of her.

"Eat up!" Wheatley said, he had a huge smile spread across his face.

Chell smiled back then began to eat her pancakes, and watched as Wheatley inhaled his.

"You know, Aaron might take Garret and me to New Detroit this summer," Wheatley said mouth full of food.

"There is no way you'll all fit in that truck," Chell responded. The last time she saw that truck the trunk door refused to close and eventually had to be taken off.

"Me and Garret can sit in the trunk while Aaron drives," Wheatley replied.

"Fine, you can go but remember that New Detroit is three hours away," Chell reminded.

"I know, I know I'll pack plenty of water and food," Wheatley said, as he put his dishes under the running faucet. He looked around the room getting a glimpse of the clock on the kitchen wall.

"Oh bollocks." He said flatly, as he dashed around the house cleaning himself off and getting ready to head to the station. Before Chell could finish her breakfast Wheatley planted a kiss on her head and dashed out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

Doug's vision blurred as the next set of corridors came into view, each one as alike as the last. Trudging towards the next corridor he felt a pang of pain shot through his leg, looking down all he saw was the faded red and a hole left by a bullet on his pants.

"When's the last time you took a rest?" Doug's companion cut through the silence like a knife his voice radiating off the vine-covered walls.

Rest? He didn't need rest he needed food and water, he NEEDED to escape the Rat trap that was Aperture. While rolling his eyes in response he caught a glimpse of light further down the hallway, and he wasted no time in investigating the source. The source, however, didn't provide him much of a sense of direction it was only a small chip in the wall. As Doug looked throughout the hallway he noticed the crack in the wall was only a stream to an ocean of damage that flooded through the hall papers were spread across the floor, desks, and chairs were strewn throughout even filing cabinets were tipped. Doug carefully made his way through the passage making sure not to fall through the floor. When he reached what he assumed was a door at this point it was more of a floorboard the hinges rusted away by time. He limped towards the next passage his footsteps echoed as he entered the cavern of a room. The room was surprisingly light only getting darker the lower the room sunk, looking down Doug couldn't see a floor all he could see was black. The catwalk seemed to stretch on for god knows how long and to the left or right was shipping crates all covered in overgrowth some dented and overlapping one another. With nowhere left to go except forward, Doug moved on a chorus of metallic clanks accompanying every footstep.

Doug had been walking for an hour or so at this point his sense of time had been so convoluted by decades of being underground, he still has yet to figure out how long he was in cryosleep he only woke up because the facility went into full meltdown he ran into the depths of Aperture to find Chell and escape and well, the rest is history. Once again Doug caught sight of light it wasn't cold like the rest of the facility it was warm just like the sunlight he saw in the corridors then he saw it, the wall was gone blasted away by whatever crashed into it.

"Freedom," Doug said in a hushed tone his mind was jelly, his head shot from left to right looking for something anything to use as an escape route. His eyes landed on a piece of scaffolding that was twisted and bent but it would have to do. As he sped down the catwalk his four-sided friend spoke up,

"This doesn't look safe," He said

"That doesn't matter." Doug retorted rolling his eyes, why does he care whether Doug gets hurt or not? He'd already been shot what more could this facility do to him besides kill him.

"Doug, YOU COULD DIE UP THERE!" His companions voice grew louder and echoed off the walls of the facility, Doug was starting to get annoyed why, why out of the entire time they've been escaping had it been a problem now?

"I WILL DIE IF I STAY DOWN HERE!" He too started to raise his voice, taking a deep breath he lowerd his voice but still kept its stern nature, "Look I'm getting us out of here whether you like it or not I refuse to die down here willingly." And with that, he grabbed on to the scaffold and started climbing.

Doug was so close to the surface he could almost smell the fresh air, he could almost feel the wind in his hair and the sun on his face. The daydream was cut short by the sound of squealing metal his eyes flew open and his head shot down to see the scaffold crumble beneath him. Doug's legs hung as his weight shifted and he flung himself from bar to bar. He was so close why him? Why now? Could the facility stop decomposing for one minute, using the last of his strength he hurled himself into the dirt before him. As he stood up and brushed off his coat Doug realized he'd escaped he went through hell and back but he escaped.

"Hey! We made it," Doug said smile spread across his face as he breathed in the fresh air.

No answer.

"I'm sorry for the scare back there, but hey, on the bright side we made it!" He said

No answer.

"You know you don't have to give me the silent treatmen-" Doug paused, there was nothing on his back his head spun as he looked around frantically for his friend. Doug peered into the void of the facility, his heart sank and eyes began to sting water dripped down his cheeks as he sat on the edge of hell. He sat there for an hour only sobbing to himself only speaking once,

"I'm sorry,"

Author notes: Thanks for the support guys :D


End file.
